This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Young People's Service Youth Worker, Giovanni Ferri, for the attention of Secondary Schools, Heads, PSHE Leads, Politics teachers, and Youth Voice Leads.
Make Your Mark, the largest youth ballot in the UK, which asks young people to select their top issues is back for 2019. The Slough Youth Parliament are seeking the support of all our Secondary schools to support the campaign again this year.
Make Your Mark can be an integral part of PHSE. If your school hasn’t already registered to participate in this years ballot then please do so at http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/makeyourmark/schools-colleges-and-youth-organisations/ by 18th July. This link will enable you to order ballot papers or downloadable tally sheets.
Whilst registration needs to take place by the 18th July, the actual campaign and voting takes place between the 23rd August and the 9th October.
This is a great opportunity for your Youth Parliament representatives or school council to take part in gathering the views of pupils, to that end students can also register to become Make Your Mark champions at http://www.ukyouthparliament.org.uk/makeyourmark/champions/.
The most popular issues will be shared with local decision makers and debated by the UK Youth Parliament in their November debate, chaired by the Speaker of the House of Commons Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP and broadcast live on BBC Parliament. This years Common's sitting is due to take place on 8th November with Lynch Hill Enterprise Academy student Hassan Fazeel, 14 due to represent Slough.
Previous success
Last years Make Your Mark campaign was a great success with more than 11,000 young people participating locally. This resulted in the Slough having the second highest turnout in UK and top for South East with 95%. Young people voted to put an end to knife crime as their top priority issue. Tackling knife crime and other popular topics were debated by the UK Youth Parliament in the House of Commons in November 2018 where Slough was represented by Baylis Court School student Raakhi Sharma, 17. Knife crime is also the subject of a current Youth Select Committee inquiry in Parliament where Slough is also being represented with Westgate student Susuana Senghor, 17 on the panel.
Make Your Mark and Slough Youth Parliament is supported by the Young People's Service, Slough Borough Council. For more information on Slough's Youth Voice initiatives or to request support with Make Your Mark please email sloughforyouth@slough.gov.uk or alternatively call on 01753 875510.